Director's Information

The LionelHampton Jazz Festival is the worlds largest educational jazz festival with nearly 5,000 student participants each year.

The Festival has a variety of opportunities including performance clinics, afternoon Young Artists Concerts, artist and educational workshops, Hamp's Club and evening concerts featuring today's finest jazz musicians.

Performance Clinics
Performance Clinics (formerly referred to as adjudicated student performances) for student groups ranging from elementary school through college and cater to both instrumental and vocal ensembles, combos and soloists. Each group will be placed in a performance site with schools of the same size classification. Ensembles perform for three Performance Evaluation Clinicians (PEC's) who will provide written comments. The third PEC will hold a clinic with the group immediately following the performance. The time slots for Ensembles are 20-minute warm up, 20 minute performance and 20 minute clinic time. Combos have either two or three PEC's who will provide written and verbal evaluations of the groups. They have a total of 20 minutes to perform and the clinic portion of the process takes place during that time frame. Most combos choose to play for 10-15 minutes. Soloists have one PEC who provides both written comments and a short clinic session after the performance. The solo time slot is for 15 minutes total, most students play or sing for about 10 minutes. Groups must prepare a slow and fast section of either one song, or have two songs that represent the different tempos for the clinician. General information may be found in the rules portion of the website. We encourage students, directors and the general public to attend other's performance clinics and support the musical endeavors of all.

In 2011, we re-formatted the performance clinic days as follows:

Wednesday (Invited Schools) A select number of college and elementary Instrumental and Vocal Ensembles, Instrumental Combos and Instrumental Soloists have been invited to perform in a (90) minute Intensive Clinic hosted by two Performance Evaluation Clinicians (PEC's). The format is flexible. Directors, students, and two PEC's may create an experience that best fits the goals of the invited school. The PEC's will go on stage to discuss the performance and work with the students while the audience watches. We are striving to offer greater impact and growth for groups through this program. John Clayton, Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival Artistic Director, will visit each selected group in a master class capacity for a ½ day (up to 4 hours) prior to the February Festival. During the Wednesday Intensive Clinic, lunch will be provided to all participants in a round table setting. The group lunch provides an engaging interaction between peers. Groups that would like to watch and attend the Wednesday sessions are encouraged to attend at no charge. We will continue to invite groups each year so all our participants receive invitations from the Festival.

Thursday (Elementary, Middle School, Jr. High, and College/University) Thursday will be a combined elementary/middle school/Jr. high and college performance day. This day will provide Performance Clinic opportunities to those categories in the instrumental and vocal ensemble, combo and solo arenas. This day also features the traditional late afternoon Young Artist Concerts and the Hamp’s Club experience for college players at one of the local clubs following the evening concert.

Friday (High School Vocal) Friday features high school vocal groups. This day will provide Performance Clinic opportunities for vocal ensembles and soloists, and features the traditional late afternoon Young Artist Concerts and the Hamp’s Club experience at the Kibbe Dome prior to the evening concerts.

Saturday (High School Instrumental) Saturday features high school instrumental groups. This day will provide performance clinic opportunities for instrumental ensembles, combos and solos. Saturday also features the traditional late afternoon Young Artist Concerts and the Hamp’s Club experience at the Kibbe Dome prior to the evening concerts.

Lodging can be very limited. Directors are encouraged to secure lodging as soon as possible. For more information about options please click here.

Young Artists Concerts & Hamp's Club
At the close of each day, Performance Evaluation Clinicians may choose to select ensembles, combos and soloists to perform during our Young Artist Concerts and at Hamp's Club both of which offer an opportunity to experience a real life gig situation. Ensembles play on the evening concert's Main Stage, and soloists perform on the Hamp's Club stage both located inside the Kibbie Dome. Students perform to a crowd of their peers, general public, and attracts between 2,000 and 5,000 audience members. Students, Directors and chaperons may attend the student concerts at no charge. The general public may opt to support the student concerts by purchasing a $3 collectible pin. Student groups may use their own rhythm section, and soloists may be accompanied by a professional rhythm section.

Artist & Educational Workshops
The Festival also offers over 100 workshops that require a Commemorative Button for the public and students receive festival wristbands from their director to attend. They feature the artists at the Festival and a host of world-renowned educators and artist educators. We also have partnered with the dance department at the University and offer a host of dance workshops during the day. The workshops are in themes that include: Artist Features, Director Helps, Technology, Master Classes, Hands-On and a theme relevant to the artistic theme for the year, to be announced. Some of these workshops provide handouts and materials for participants. Several of the workshops allow students to come on stage to work with the presenter.

Student participants may attend the Festival workshops and the Young Artists afternoon concerts for free. There is no charge to listen to the other performances in the daytime portion of the Festival. For a detailed listing of artist and educational workshops click here.

Evening Concerts Featuring Internationally Renowned Jazz MusiciansEvening concerts feature professional musicians whose artist line-up features a range of young artists to mature masters. Nearly every artist offers a workshop at the Festival, as well as remarkable performances during the four evenings of the Festival. Attendees may expect to experience a party format, as well as artists performing with their own groups and sidemen.

Tickets for the evening concerts vary in cost from approximately $12 to $45 per person. Click here for more information on ticket costs.

Other Programs
Other programs of interest include the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival's Jazz in the Schools outreach. Artists and artist educators are sent to both private and public schools within the region. Experiential educational presentations are offered the week prior to the Festival, and occasionally during the Festival. The artists and artist educators see over 7,000 students during the Jazz in the Schools week!